


Voiceless

by notjustmom



Series: After Titan [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-snap, Tony can't talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-06 04:44:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17338829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: Inspired by many plot bunnies, that I've been tossing around with SatanicMe, this is a possible first chapter of a longer story...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SatanicMe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SatanicMe/gifts).



He is fine. They all say he’s fine.

Except for the dehydration and wanting to eat a few thousand cheeseburgers, he settles for an IV and hospital slop for a couple of days for Pepper’s sake, then on the third day manages to communicate his need for a pen and pad of paper and scratches out:

_Pep - get me the fuck out of here!_

She rolls her eyes at him, but kisses him and leaves the room to get the paperwork started. Perhaps she wonders why it took so long for him to tell her, or maybe she doesn’t, though for some reason she doesn’t push him to talk. 

Probably because according to the doctors, he is fine. Though he knows she knows he can’t possibly be fine.

There is nothing physically wrong with him. There have always been more than a few screws loose rattling around in his head, yet they have always found a way through things, mostly because she knew exactly how to push, and he knew when it was time to tell her what he needed. 

_I’m not ready to talk yet_ reads the second note that he hands her after he finishes dressing and is ready to go home. Home. Where was home now? Does it even matter? They aren’t questions he can deal with, so he lets her deal with them.

No one has visited him over the two and a half days that he’s been stuck in the hospital. Pepper has spent bits of time telling him what happened in Wakanda, of their losses, of the survivors, that May wants to see him, but he had shaken his head, he wasn’t ready for that non-conversation yet. Though he knows he will have to - eventually. What the - no. He closes his eyes tightly, then opens them again and opens his mouth to speak, closes it again, scribbles out a brief message and flaps it impatiently at Pepper’s face. She rolls her eyes, but takes the paper from him and she starts as she reads the words.

_Is Parker in the room with us?_

“Of course he is. He’s been home for a week. They found the tracker you had put into the suit, they found him in Afghanistan, luckily he ended up near a village, doesn’t remember how he got there, but - Tony?”

He jots down another note and hands it to her.

_Can you give us a minute?_

Pepper nods and gives Peter a peculiar look, then leaves the room. Tony looks at Peter and puts the notepad and pen carefully down on the bed, then stands up and takes a step closer to the boy he thought he’d never see again.

“Sir, it’s me, Mr. Stark.”

Tony nods and gently places a shaky hand on his shoulder and closes his eyes, and doesn’t move for a minute and a half then pulls his hand away abruptly, turns back for the pad and pen and writes out:

_I can’t talk. Oddly enough, it doesn’t bother me, you’d think it would, as much as I like to talk, but it doesn’t. Don’t know why, don’t care._

He hands the note to Peter and watches him read it. He has so many questions he wants to ask, no, there are so many questions he should want to ask, but he finds none of them matter to him at all at the moment.

“Can I come by the house and visit soon? Maybe you can help with my homework?”

Tony eyes pop open and if he could have laughed, he would have, for the first time since he’s been home. Instead he manages a grin as he shakily pens another note and tosses it to Peter:

_Sure, kid - guess I can’t call you that anymore. Is Peter okay? But only if you call me Tony. Mr. Stark is way too formal, and forget about Sir. ___

____

____

Peter tries to smile back at him, but whispers out a tumble of words, and Tony hears the scared seventeen year old kid in his voice, “I haven’t been able to tell them, any of them, what happened up there. To me, to the others - I don’t understand why I’m here. Do you think we will ever know? I’m sorry. I tried to stay. I did -”

Tony nods, and scribbles quickly on the pad. _“I should want to know, but honestly Peter, I’m just too tired to care, and I’m still not sure if you’re really standing there or not.”_

“Can I give you a hug, uhm, Tony? Sorry, it’s going to take me a while to get used to -” His breath is knocked from his lungs as Tony wraps his arms around him and holds on tight for a slow ten count, takes a slow, deep breath, lets it go, then releases his grip on Peter, picks up the paper and pen he had dropped, and rolls his eyes as he finally feels the tears come.

_“I’m sorry, Peter, I should have been able to stop it. You should never have been there. And yeah, you can come over and do homework anytime you want.”_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm playing with what could/should/might happen between Tony and Steve at some point after the snap, this is one of the scenarios I'm playing with, with the added glitch that Tony still can't talk. But, boy can he write, if he feels the need...

Home. He was home. Why? Why did he get to return home, while others, the others didn’t? If Peter had somehow made it back to Earth, what of the others? Right. Something to work on, besides the problem of his voice being out of commission. But was it really a problem? He walked down the three flights of steps to his workshop, as he couldn’t bear the idea of being encased in an elevator even for the fifteen seconds it took to get down to the workshop. He stopped at the keypad, entered his code and blew out a sigh of relief as the door slid open and he walked into the place that had always been his safe haven in the past, and shivered as he heard the door close behind him. He’d have to find a way to keep the door open. Yes, of course the point of having the door was to keep him safe, from whatever was after him now… but he rolled his eyes and wondered to himself, who or what was left in the universe that would want him dead now?

“Tony.”

Tony blinked as Steve Rogers’ image appeared on the security camera, as if on cue.

“I know you can’t, or won’t talk right now, but, I need to talk to you, if it’s at all possible. Please?”

Tony shrugged and pressed the button that would allow Rogers access to the house, the elevator, and essentially grant him permission to once again blame him for everything had happened over the past, what, three years, since they had last seen each other. Since the last time they had done everything but kill the other.

He held his breath for a four count and let it out slowly, breathing had become something he had to think about now, even as he had all the air he wanted, his brain was essentially slowly coming back online, as if it couldn’t quite accept that it was still functioning. Damn. He pulled open a drawer and rummaged around for a piece of paper and a pen, and of course found nothing as Steve suddenly appeared at the door. Tony blinked at him, for the first time he had known him, he seemed to have aged, and not aged all that well. Without a second thought, he pressed the button that allowed him access to the workshop and nodded as he walked in. He watched his former friend jump as the door closed quietly behind him. Well, at least that was something. Tony nodded at the chair Peter usually sat in, and watched as Steve fell into it wearily, then tossed a package that had been hastily wrapped in brown paper on the worktable. Tony flinched and heard a snort of laughter escape from the man next to him.

“Sorry. Not a bomb. Figured you might need some paper and Sharpies, as I recall, they aren’t things you usually have on hand.”

Tony reached for the package and opened it carefully, finding a dozen oversized legal pads and a dozen boxes of black fine tipped markers. “I thought -” Steve’s voice came to a halt as Tony’s dark brown eyes met his and he looked down at the floor and ran his fingers through his hair. “Shit.”

Tony rolled his eyes, opened a box of Sharpies, pulled one out and scribbled _“Language” _on the first legal pad, then held it up for Steve to see.__

____

__

“Yeah, well.”

_So, you’re here, you have the floor, go ahead, let me have it. ___

____

____

Steve sat up so fast Tony instinctively slid his chair back and held his breath as Steve held up his hands. “Damn it, I’m sorry. I’m doing this all wrong. I didn’t come here to blame you, or start another fight.”

_No? ___

____

____

“No. I know something went bad on Titan. When we found Peter, he couldn’t or wouldn’t say anything about what went down up there, just that we had to find a way to get you home.”

_Anyone else? Strange? And there were some... _  
How the hell could he ask about the Guardians, even now, he wasn’t sure if they had been real or just figments of his imagination.__

____

____

“Doctor Strange?”

_You know about him? ___

____

____

“He’s why you made it home. You and Strange are the reason everybody made it back, Tony.” The marker slipped from his fingers and Tony glared at Steve, then bent over to pick up the pen he had dropped. “Everyone is safe, Tony, because of you, and Strange.”

_But, Pepper told me what happened in Wakanda - ___

____

____

“When did she tell you?”

_When? Two days ago? I think? Time has become - ___

____

____

“Yeah, I know. We found Peter first, and then one by one, the others started showing up in places they shouldn’t have been. Everyone is fine, well, as fine as they can be considering.”

_Steve. ___

____

____

“I don’t understand it at all, but before Strange left for the Sanctum, he told us you’d understand, eventually, and then he disappeared through one of those golden light things - nearly the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, and I thought I’d seen - ah - well. I just came here to let you know, I thought you might - actually, not sure, I just wanted to be sure you were okay, I thought about visiting you at the hospital, but I knew Pepper would have my head on a platter before I got in to see you. I was wrong.”

Tony stared at him for a long moment, then with a shaky hand, scratched out:

_About? ___

____

____

“About you. Siberia. I know you can’t ever forgive me, and whatever trust or friendship we had at one point can’t be fixed. On my way here, I tried to think of something that could repair what we had, and I finally realised there isn’t any reason for you to think -”

The person he had been before up until the moment he had found himself on the donut from hell would have let Steve keep talking, just to see how far he would go. But he held up his hand and the words stumbled to a halt.

Tony sat still for a moment then began to write, slowly and awkwardly at first, then one sentence turned into a page, and then to two pages. After three and a half pages, he replaced the cap on the pen, tossed the legal pad to Steve, and turned his focus to his thousands of unread emails.

 

_Steve-_

__

__

_I don’t know why I made it back. I don’t know why Peter or the rest of them are back, maybe I’ll figure it out, and if Strange said I will, then I probably will. I can’t explain what happened on Titan, I won’t even try. Pretty certain it’s why I can’t talk right now, I’m not meant to. Whatever. ___

____

____

_Ever since, well, to be honest, ever since I met you, I’ve had a difficult time. Yeah, as if that wasn’t as clear as crystal. I was used to doing things on my own, it worked some times, well enough that aside from Rhodey, it was hard to trust you and the others. Until after New York. I realized Coulson was right, that there are such things as heroes, and I thought I had people, a team, but more than that, as many mistakes as I had made, I had acquired a family of a sort, a bizarre, off the wall, piping hot mess kind of family, but considering the family I came from, it was a relief to know I had people who had my back no matter what. And then Sokovia happened. And Pepper left me. And I could barely breathe, barely function, and I thought if I could keep Wanda safe, with Vision by her side, keep us together somehow, maybe things could calm down, but it quickly became something that was beyond my control._

____

____

_To be honest, ever since I came back from Afghanistan, I’ve felt like my life stopped being my own once I chose to build the armor, and put it on. I realize now that it was a choice I made. I wasn’t fated to become Iron Man. It was a choice I made to become him, and for the longest time, I believed the reason I was allowed to survive the cave and everything else was because I was meant to be something bigger, at least do something more than what I had done for most of my life. On Titan, I did everything I could to stop Thanos from wiping out half the universe, and I failed. I failed, Steve, and yet, here I am, still. I don’t know why. Don’t know if I care. ___

____

____

_About Siberia. Yeah, in those moments after I saw Barnes kill my parents on that video, I wanted him dead. You chose to defend him over me. Nearly killed me in the process. But you didn’t. You have always been a black or white kind of guy, you never believed in the nuances of things, did you? That was one of our basic problems. I was once like you, something was either wrong or right. Good or Evil. Sure, yeah, in rare instances. But mostly, I’ve come to the conclusion after a few harsh lessons and years of quiet and not so quiet deliberation with myself, that the world, the universe, existence itself is made up varying degrees of grey._

____

____

_I always tried to get everyone home after a battle. But I never saw us as soldiers at war, perhaps that is where I erred. You have always seen the world as a place in a state of war, and yeah, historically, human beings aren’t good at peace. You were always willing to accept casualties, your goal was to finish the mission and hope the majority of us made it home in one piece more or less, so we could go onto the next mission. Yes, I wanted to try to complete whatever task we had set out to do, but I always fought to get home to Pepper, back to my little life, such as it was, and it seems smaller, yet even more important at the moment. ___

____

____

_I know that must seem selfish to you, small-minded, whatever. Still, on Titan, as I watched everyone I fought with turn to dust, held Peter in my arms as he fought to stay in one piece, and heard Strange tell me there was no other way, it wasn’t the universe I thought of, it was of Peter, of his Aunt May, of Pepper. At that moment I believed I was going to die on that damn dead planet, and I was never going to see Pepper again, never marry her and never have a family with her. And now? Now all I want to do is to stop thinking, and sleep for a day, maybe two and maybe I’ll be allowed to get on with my life. I don’t know if it’s possible or realistic and maybe I blew it with her when I got on that damn donut. All I know is I have to try. ___

____

____

_Hungry?_

__

__

Steve looked up from the legal pad and couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah, actually, I can’t remember the last time I ate, to be honest.”

Tony glanced over at him, then got up from his work station, and nodded towards the door. After a moment’s hesitation, Steve got up and followed Tony out of the workshop, up the three flights of stairs and into the kitchen, where Tony set about making him an omelet, still the only thing he knew how to cook.


	3. Chapter 3

“Why?”

Tony tensed and rolled his eyes. He knew exactly what she was asking, but she waited until he was both paperless and penless, and in a bubble bath with her, and he wasn’t even sure how they had ended up in such a small essentially enclosed space. No, he knew how, he knew exactly how, this was her way of testing his ability to speak to her, and at all in general, and if he knew her, which he liked to believe he did, she was about to begin her favorite, and his least favorite game of 20 Questions.

“Let’s see, where to start.” She nuzzled his shoulder for a moment then leaned against his back and let out a sigh before she began. “Steve Rogers, the guy, no, the superhuman asshole who nearly killed you three years ago in Siberia, then left you there, where you nearly bled out, and hadn’t spoken to you since - no, that’s right, he wrote you a sweet little nearly apology and gave you a phone in case you needed his help - stop me if you remember any of this - you let him in your, no, our house, and you made him an omelet.”

Tony turned in her arms and she bit her lip and looked into his eyes. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I am, I’m just trying to understand what’s going on in your head. I can’t even begin to claim to know what you must be feeling or thinking right now, but what if he had - I just got you home, Tony. And the world, well, the universe, I guess, is even weirder than I can even start to think about, and you either won’t or can’t talk to me, and the weirdest thing of all is that you don’t seem all that bothered by it. The old you would have been in your workshop, trying your hardest to understand what is going on with you - the old you never would have let Rogers within twenty yards of our driveway, let alone allow him to sit there at our kitchen table while you cooked for him.”

Tony shook his head, and got out of the tub, dried off, then slipped into his robe and picked up his pad and pen.

_I’m not. I’m not bothered by it, and yeah, at first I wondered why I wasn’t bothered by it. You, of all people know I like to talk more than just about anything else, I love the sound of my own voice, but right now, it’s not there, I can’t make a sound, Pep. There’s just nothing there, my throat doesn’t hurt, I can hear fine, I just can’t speak. And I don’t care that I can’t. About Steve, yeah, I don’t know, I just needed to not talk to him. He just came to see - actually I’m not sure why he was here. I don’t think he wanted my forgiveness, or to apologize, he just needed to be sure I was in one piece. I think he wanted my help with something but was afraid to ask. ___

__He stopped writing and laid the pen and pad down, then walked over to the tub and knelt next to it, and took Pepper’s hand in his and kissed it sweetly, then got to his feet and kissed her forehead, then left the room._ _

__

__Sorry about last night. - T_ _

__Thought texting would be easier. And my hand is cramping up from all the writing I did yesterday. - T_ _

__I can’t tell you how I feel right now, because I don’t know. - T_ _

__All I know is that I’m done with being youknowwho for good this time. Honestly, I’m done. I tried, Pep. I tried so hard to do the right thing, after Afghanistan and I kept fucking it up, and I always made things worse. Strange said that this was the only way, but I don’t know what that means, and he said I would, eventually understand, but I was up all night, replaying everything, and I’m more confused now than when I started. - T_ _

__Pep? - T_ _

__Yeah, I’m here. Good thing we have unlimited data. - P_ _

__Kidding. I’m kidding, Tony. - P_ _

__I know. When I know what’s going on, I’ll tell you, I swear, I just need time, Pep. I know over the last ten years I’ve made you all kinds of promises, and broken them all. But this time. This time, I swear, I’m done with everything. - T_ _

__He closed his eyes as he saw Peter Parker’s smiling face on the security camera and dashed off another text._ _

__It’s Peter, I told him he could come by and I’d help him with his homework. - T_ _

__Right. - P_ _

__Pep. Please he was there, on Titan, and he’s the only one who can help me put this together except Strange and he’s not available, as far as I know. - T_ _

__Yeah, let him in, I’ll make both of you a snack and you will eat. - P_ _

__He refrained from sending a response, then looked up to hear the elevator open then saw Peter enter his code into the keypad and walk into the workshop. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do now. Peter wasn’t dust on a distant planet, he was standing there in his workshop, as he had a few times a week for the last few years, ever since Siberia, and -_ _

__“Hey Mr. - sorry, Tony. How are you? Still can’t talk. That’s okay, I can talk enough for the both of us.” Tony grinned at him and pointed to his chair, the chair where just yesterday Steve had sat. Time was an odd thing, though he had known it vaguely before, he was suddenly realizing just how odd it truly was._ _

__Peter sat down in his chair and wheeled over to where Tony was sitting at his monitors, and whistled when he noticed what Tony was looking at. “Titan.”_ _

__Tony nodded._ _

__“Do you - I mean - I know it’s only been a couple days since I saw you, but do you know why -”_ _

__Tony shook his head._ _

__“I tried to remember. The last thing I remember is not feeling well, and then everything hurt, and you tried, you tried to keep me from disintegrating, I could tell - damn. Sorry. Sorry - language, sorry for - I didn’t want to leave you there, I tried so hard to stay.”_ _

__Tony shook his head and grabbed a pen and began to write._ _

_I know, Peter. I know. You shouldn’t have been there, but I don’t think I’d still be here now if you hadn’t been. As Strange would probably say it was the only way, I still don’t know what that means, I don’t know anything, except I can’t be Iron Man anymore. _ ___ _

____Peter nodded as he read the note. “I know. About you not wanting to do it anymore. I get it. I’m just sorry it took me so long to get help to you. Luckily Steve is the one who found me.” Tony raised an eyebrow at him, and Peter went on as he reached into his bag and pulled out his Calculus book. “He wanted to know where you were. If you were okay. And I told him the last place I saw you. He - he was -”_ _ _ _

_What?_

______“He was sad more than anything. Like he had lost everything, but it wasn’t just that, it was like he was just tired.”_ _ _ _ _ _

_Yeah, I got that feeling too. ___

________“You saw him?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Yeah. Pepper’s mad because I let him in the house. ___

__________“Understandable, considering,” Peter said after a moment._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Yeah, I know. But I needed to, wanted to let him - I actually needed to talk, well, not exactly talk, but - get some stuff off my chest. ___

____________“Did it help?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Yeah, I think so. Hasn’t helped me figure any of this out, but it helped with the old stuff. So Calculus, yeah? ___

______________“Yeah, piece of cake stuff, just needed a break from Aunt May. She’s cooking all my favorite food, and is trying to find ways to keep me from leaving the house, even thinks I should take time off from school for a while. But I need to get back to something normal, something real. Does that make sense? I don’t even know if it makes sense, but it’s all I know to do right now, and if I don’t have stuff to do, then I think about, you know.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Yeah. ___

________________“Odd thing, though, when I try to think back - it’s like things are missing. I remember you, and the weird insect chick, and the wizard, but when I try to remember all the stuff that happened before the snap, things are just not there, like someone zapped my memory or something?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Tony nodded. _I think it will just take time, you can come over as often as you want, I’ll text May and let her know you’re working on a school project. Though I’m not sure you really want to remember everything. Not sure I want to. Maybe it’s just enough that we made it back, Peter. ___

__________________“You don’t really believe that.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_No, and I wish I could leave it alone, but I can’t. I need to know, and not just because I think it’s why I lost my voice, but because I think it’s why I’m still here. But I need your help, Peter. ___

____________________“You got it, Mr. - sorry, Tony.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and the inevitable fluff...

“Hey Bruce, it’s Pepper, I know you’re probably dealing with whatever it is that’s going on right now, but Tony could use a friend right now, thing is, he’s not talking, I mean, he can’t talk. You know how he is, no matter what has happened before in his life, he’s always been able to talk about things, and now he can’t, he’s writing and texting, but, it’s not the same. Anyway. Just give me a call when you can. Thanks.” 

Pepper ended the call, then took the elevator down to where Tony was holed up in the workshop, he hadn’t left it for a couple of days, completely normal behavior for him, after he’d gone through something traumatic. What wasn’t normal was that at the moment, he wasn’t building anything, just sitting, staring into space.

Space. She tried not to think back to a few days ago when Rogers had come to her and told her where Tony was, adrift on a ship that was running out of air, he couldn’t or wouldn’t tell her how he knew, but she knew he wouldn’t have been standing at her door if there had been any other way.

“Pepper. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I don’t know if he’ll trust anyone but you, we think the risk to you is low, but from the message we received, and based on information we have, I don’t know how much longer he has. I know how much he trusts you, and we have a window to get to him, but the window is closing…”

She jumped as her phone vibrated in her hand, bringing the present sharply into focus. 

 

I’ll be there in a couple of hours. - Banner

Thanks. - P

 

As good as his word, Bruce arrived within two hours, and found Pepper absentmindedly going through a pint of ice cream. “Friday let me in, Pepper, you okay?” He searched her face for a moment then smiled kindly at her as she blinked at him. “Assuming he’s downstairs?”

Pepper nodded at him and whispered, “don’t. I mean, he doesn’t know, I mean, I didn’t know, I haven’t found a way, I mean, he’s just returned home, and things are weird right now -”

“You should tell him, Pep, you know how much he’s wanted -”

“He told me, the day, that day, right before the donut showed up - he’d had a dream, Bruce, the night before, that we had a kid, and I told him he was wrong when he asked me. But, the next day, when I knew, when I thought he was gone, not coming back - I started to feel funny, I thought it was just because - you know, but then it went on, and a couple nights ago, he stayed in his workshop like he used to when he needed time to work things through, I went out, bought a couple pregnancy tests... he’s not himself, Bruce, and god, I know he has reasons. I was there, Bruce, he thought I was a hallucination, he was nearly - I don’t think he knows how he got back, and I don’t know if I want him to know it was me, and then to tell him about the baby, I don’t think he’s ready -”

“You need to tell him, Pepper, tell him everything.”

 

Tony blinked and rolled his eyes as Strange stepped through a portal and dropped into the seat next to him. For the first time since he’d been home he wished he could speak. “You can, go ahead.”

“Strange?”

“Yeah, maybe, a bit. Sorry, couldn’t help it.”

“How?” Tony shook his head as if he could shake the rust from his voice.

“Does it matter?” Stephen asked quietly.

“It does if it’s not over, if people I care about are still at risk. Damn it, Stephen, I’m done. I just want to have a life, a real life, with Pepper if she hasn’t given up on me yet. I can’t remember everything, I’m not even sure how I got home, to be honest, one minute I was stuck on that damn ship, the next, I woke up in a hospital and I couldn’t talk.”

Strange offered him half a smirk. “I can imagine the hardship that caused you.”

“Why are you here, Stephen?”

“To let you off the hook, Tony.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means, Tony Stark, it’s time to let others take your place, to do the work you have done so honorably for so long. It’s no longer your job to save the world, or the universe for that matter, it never really was meant to be. It’s time for you to have a life. Go and talk to Pepper. She has always been your answer in the past, when you were lost, she has always found you. It was no different this time.” Strange watched the fog lift from Tony’s eyes, as he rose from the chair and laid a trembling hand on his friend’s shoulder, then turned and disappeared back through the portal.

 

“Pepper?”

“Tony?” Pepper turned and bit her lip as she saw the look in his eyes. “It was me. Steve came and told me, they needed someone you trusted, to bring you home. You thought - “

“I thought you were a hallucination, but it really was you, you were there. You brought me home, Pep, you saved me again, as you always have.” He wrapped his arms around her and she rested against his shoulder as he closed his eyes and breathed easily for the first time since he’d been home. “What is it? There’s something else.”

She pulled away from him and took both of his hands in hers, took a breath, then let it go slowly. “You remember the dream you told me about, the day you got on that ship, the dream about Morgan? You said the dream felt so real, and I - I didn’t know, I didn’t know for sure until last night. You were right, Tony. You were right.”

Tony pulled her back into his arms and kissed her lightly, then whispered into her hair, “what d’ya say we get married, hmm? Today. Just the two of us. We’ll throw a big party later, when things calm down, but, today, Miss Potts, the only thing I want to do is marry you.”

“No more flying off on crazy donuts? No more insane robots? No, never mind, don’t make me any more promises. Yes, Mr. Stark, I will marry you.”

“Today?”

“Yes, today, please.”


End file.
